Perez Nomination Inches Forward, But Senate Is the Real Hurdle

WASHINGTON – Tom Perez’s nomination to be secretary of Labor is headed for the full Senate after winning approval from a panel, amid ongoing opposition from Republicans.

At a brief morning session Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee voted 12-10 on a party-line vote to move to the Senate floor Tom Perez’s nomination to lead the Department of Labor. The vote had been repeatedly delayed at the request of Republican members who said they needed more time to obtain and analyze information about Perez’s record as the director of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

Monday on the Senate floor, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) lamented that “this is the week we should have been on this floor debating and voting on the confirmation of Tom Perez, but we’re not.”

“Instead, delaying tactics on this and other nominees have now needlessly, pointlessly pushed this debate into next month,” Menendez said. “…And it doesn’t stop at the Department of Labor – Republicans have refused to take up nominees at the NLRB, threatening the operation of this critical agency. It appears any agency that stands up for workers’ rights is under attack.”

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the committee’s top Republican, said he opposed Perez’s nomination for two reasons: his actions while at the Department of Justice and his lack of cooperation with congressional committees asking him and the Obama administration to provide specific information about a personal email account Perez used to conduct official Department of Justice business.

Senate Republicans have criticized Perez for his handling of two unrelated whistleblower lawsuits that the department declined to pursue, resulting in an estimated $200 million loss for the Treasury. Republicans have been highly critical of Perez’s role in brokering a deal with the city of St. Paul, Minn. According to an investigation, Perez persuaded officials to drop a Supreme Court case that risked undermining a Justice Department theory of civil rights enforcement known as “disparate impact” – a legal theory that allows the use of statistical evidence to prove bias even without provable intent. Under the Fair Housing Act, disparate impact analysis has allowed the Obama administration to reach record settlements with banks accused of discriminatory lending.

“To preserve a favorite legal theory, Mr. Perez orchestrated a quid pro quo arrangement between the Department of Justice and the city of St. Paul in which the department agreed to drop two cases in exchange for the city withdrawing a case before the Supreme Court,” Alexander said. “This exchange cost American taxpayers the opportunity to potentially recover millions of dollars, and, more importantly, violated the trust whistleblowers place in the federal government.”

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) defended Perez and reprimanded Republicans for stalling his confirmation and failing to “produce any evidence that calls into question his ability to fairly enforce the law as it is written…or his ability to lead the Department of Labor.”

Perez’s nomination has been before the Senate committee since March. Harkin called Republican opposition to Perez’s confirmation “pointless obstructionism.” Alexander countered that Perez’s nomination has been before the Senate for 60 days, which seems a reasonable time to the senator compared to previous cabinet nominations by previous administrations.